One Death
by Nightengale
Summary: The team are chasing an alien threat, all going seemingly well but sometimes you aren't careful enough. Sometimes one death can be worse than a million. Janto


"I said left, LEFT!"

"I did go left, Jack, and there was a wall there!"

Jack swore. "I meant your other left, Owen."

They were zig zagging through the streets trying not to hit anything as they ran. A whole team of Queelag were in Cardiff and that was not so good. Queelag were scavengers finding what ever left over technology from any race they could use and selling it on the open market. However, along with being scavengers they were also slavers and did not care if the beings they chose to enslave were overly aware of the existence of life on other planets or not.

"_There are five down the alley and to your right."_ Tosh's voice buzzed through their ear pieces. _"I can't help any more than that, have to catch these guys."_

"Be careful, Tosh." Jack replied.

Tosh was in the car trying to chase down the other four Queelag who had stolen some poor bystander's hummer. Gwen on the other hand was at their ship.

"I think they have four people at their ship now." Ianto said, suddenly appearing at Jack's right. "Gwen should be able to get them out if we can just get to these guys before-" Ianto stumbled and nearly fell as they ran but righted himself, "before they get back to the ship."

The Queelag far ahead, finding their path ending in the bay, suddenly turned and started shooting at the three men. They all ducked in unison.

"Fucking little…" Owen swore as he found rudimentary cover behind a post box and shot off a round.

Queelag guns did not fire bullets like human guns did but it was a similar substance. It was something akin to steel. Apparently they didn't like laser-type weapons and preferred the old fashioned stuff.

"Little bastards!" Owen shouted again.

"Maybe you should just give up!" Jack yelled at the Queelag, "Make this all a lot simpler for all of us."

The buzzing noise which was the alien's language replied with what Jack sure was something to the affect of 'sorry can't do that' or 'fuck no.'

"This is not good to be doing out here so publicly." Ianto said as he shot over the hood of the car.

"At least it's 3 AM." Jack supplied.

"And no one wakes up to gun shots at 3 in the morning, of course."

Jack looked over at Ianto and smirked.

"Ever the source of logic."

Looking over his shoulder Ianto just raised an eyebrow. They heard what sounded like a squawk informing them that one of the Queelag had been hit.

"Fuck yes!"

Clearly it was Owen who had done it.

"Surrender!" Jack shouted, "And we won't kill you."

"Surrender and we won't kill you!" One of the Queelag who seemed to have a translator yelled back though the tone sounded like someone who had lung cancer.

"I hate this shit…" Jack muttered.

"_Jack?"_

It was Gwen.

"_I found them and I've got them out of the ship. I'm taking them back to the hub as fast as I can. Give me 2 minutes to get far enough away."_

"I think we've got you covered, Gwen." Jack said.

"Jack, they-" Owen said but was suddenly cut off when one of the Queelag's shots hit him in the thigh. "Fuck!" Owen shouted and fell back behind the post box.

"Owen!" Ianto yelled as he shot the Queelag that had shot Owen. "We have to get him. He doesn't have enough cover."

"I noticed." Jack said through clenched teeth.

It wasn't safe to cover the distance to get to Owen but they couldn't leave him there. Either the Queelag would kill him or try and take Owen as a slave. They had the Queelag under fire now but who knew when they might try and make another run for it. As far as Jack knew they didn't have site to site transporters on them at least.

"_Jack, the ones in the hummer just crashed their hummer. Apparently no one taught them to drive properly." _Tosh suddenly said in his ear, an amused tone in her voice.

"Great, Tosh. Take care of it." Jack said quickly. Suddenly he decided it was time to just go for it. "Ok, Ianto, you go and get Owen. There are only three left, I'll cover you."

"Jack just because you can't die doesn't…"

"I said go get Owen." He turned to look at Ianto who stared back at him, gun still pointed at the aliens. "That's an order. I don't want to see any blood on that pretty body of yours."

Ianto snorted and smiled. "Yes, sir."

The next moment they were both out from behind the car running in opposite directions. Ianto dashed towards Owen and Jack went shooting towards the Queelag. Clearly this took them by surprise as none of them fired at him for a moment. That gave the perfect amount of time for Jack to shoot all three before they even hit him. He watched them fall back, one with a particularly dramatic squawk. Why hadn't he done this in the first place?

Stopping and pausing to catch his breath Jack turned to look back at the other two men.

"You guys ok?"

"I've been shot; do you think I'm bloody ok?" Owen snapped from where he laid, hand keeping pressure on his leg.

"He'll be ok." Ianto said, rolling his eyes enough that Jack could see it from where he was.

"Tosh," Jack said beeping the com to life, "Come over to 2nd, we need the van."

"_Be right there, these Queelag are dead."_

"Ok, we'll get started on clean up as soon as we get Owen back to the hub."

"_What happened?!"_ Tosh sounded alarmed.

"He's been shot. Don't worry, in the leg."

"_Shouldn't we call 999?"_

"And tell them what he was shot by? Really Tosh."

He heard her sigh heavily, _"Be right there!"_

Jack jogged over to the other two to get a look at Owen. Leaning down next to him Ianto was helping to tie his handkerchief around Owen's leg. He stood and stepped back as Jack kneeled next to Owen.

"Well, at least it wasn't you shoulder." Jack said.

Owen and Ianto both glared at Jack. He just grinned.

"Maybe I should shoot you in the shou-"

Ianto didn't finish his sentence before a shot from behind them interrupted him by hitting him in the stomach.

Ianto flew back and hit the ground with a crack. Spinning and hardly even aiming Jack hit the Queelag right in the head and watched it sink to the ground. Apparently Jack hadn't shot them all as thoroughly as he thought. Always check the bodies!

Cursing himself Jack ran over to where Ianto lay. He turned his head slightly as Jack kneeled beside him. His hands were holding onto the wound in his stomach but Jack could see the white of Ianto's shirt turning to dark red far too fast.

"Oh, shit, Ianto, oh god."

"Tosh, hurry!" Owen said into the com and he dragged himself over. "I mean it!"

"This… um…" Ianto was beginning to hyperventilate. "This… hurts... just a bit… yeah…"

"They could have shot me!" Jack said. He was trying so hard not to panic. "I was right there too, right in the open. They could have shot me!"

"They didn't." Ianto said.

Blood was coming out of his mouth now and Jack had to choke back a sob with all of his might. He didn't fall apart like this; he couldn't for Ianto's sake. Carefully he pulled Ianto's head into his lap. Owen was on Ianto's other side now trying to look at the wound as best he could around Ianto's hand.

"I am calling an ambulance, hang who or what shot him."

Ianto's breathing was coming hard and fast now and his head kept trying to fall to the side.

"Ianto, keep your eyes open!" Jack said his hands on either side of Ianto's head. "Don't you do this to me."

"I can't… exactly help it… Jack," he rasped out.

Jack really didn't like how weak Ianto's voice sounded already.

"Well, you are going to help it." Jack said, "You can't steal Owen's thunder over getting shot by… passing out on me now are you?" He couldn't bear to say the word 'dying.'

"Exactly." Owen said.

"Jack." He looked down at Ianto as he spoke. "Jack, you can't save me."

"Stop, stop that right now!"

Ianto's hand came up, covered with blood, and touched his face. It was then that Jack realized he was crying.

"I'm sorry." Ianto's breaths were coming in harsh bursts. "I'm not… I'm not supposed to be the one… not the one that dies."

The SUV came onto the street then and Owen was shouting for Tosh, lists of medical supplies pouring from his lips. Jack kept staring at Ianto, the tears flowing down Jack's face and onto his collar. He could hear Tosh and Owen shouting to each other, gauze and phones and words and 999 and Owen pressing cloth against Ianto's stomach, but Jack knew it was too late. He suddenly felt so unbelievably cold.

"I'm sorry, Jack." Ianto's hand was still clutching at Jack's face though he knew that Ianto could barely muster the energy to do just that. Jack held his hand against Ianto's, holding it there. "I only have one death." he finally said.

It suddenly felt like someone had stabbed a large shard of glass into Jack's chest. Jack leaned down and kissed Ianto's lips getting blood on his on. "I'm sorry, Ianto. Oh god… I love… Ianto, I do… I'm so sorry…"

When he sat up again Ianto was dead in his lap, hand limp in his. Jack wanted to shoot himself over and over again to see if he could die too because he knew it wouldn't feel nearly as bad to try as just sitting there did. Sometimes one death could feel infinitely worse than experiencing a million, just one.


End file.
